…have borrowed the tactics of the Hillary Clinton bashing, Putin-paid, Russian hackers to discredit me two weeks before the Nov. 7th General Election.
I don’t appreciate it.
Here’s what the Lens “collaborative” says about their work with Duluth’s Mayor:
“A Western Duluth Collabrative Leadership Team working with our city leadership to provide insight into areas of opportunity facing our Western Duluth Community. Currently there is not a department head leading any of the City of Duluth’s departments residing within the Western Duluth Corridor. This is recognized as a gap in perspective and the “Western Duluth Lens” Leadership Team is proactively sharing the perspective of Western Duluth through Neighborhood Community Groups and our Youth candid feedback. With valuable insight from our youth, we have been able to narrow down specific areas needing improvement and share these opportunities with Mayor Larson.”
A few days ago the Lens asked a sort of innocent question about me which other’s answered before it was sent to me for my reply:
This post is now being used as a Facebook ad (that’s what “sponsored” means) ostensibly to promote the Lens Facebook Page. It is clearly an attempt to have this “innocent” question show up in everybody’s Facebook space to see what a gangrenous fellow I am.
Mayor Larson. Be careful who you associate with lest they turn their guns on you.
Here is the conversation as it unfolded:
A friend of mine found the source of my original comments and posted it to the Western Duluth Lens:
He further explained how others had used these words against me four years ago.
Then my school board colleague, Alanna Oswald, came to my defense writing:
“Welty’s voting record since this 4 year old comment happened firmly demonstrates he votes for and advocates for Western Duluth always.”
I followed up with a thank you to the Western Duluth Lens writing:
“I would like to thank the Western Duluth Lens for showing the context of my remarks 4 years ago.
But one persistent critic, Elizabeth Carlson, was not satisfied with this explanation and repeated the question writing:
“Can you explain your comment in that article? “Now gangrene is spreading east from western Duluth.” What was meant by that comment? It certainly doesn’t sound very complimentary for those of us that live out west, but things can be misinterpreted…”
This was my reply to Elizabeth:
Elizabeth,
Gangrene doesn’t stop at the limb where the infection begins. If it is not stopped it kills it’s victim. The Red Plan’s first damage was felt out west and in Central Duluth. The metaphor I used was a warning that even eastern Duluth was vulnerable. For instance, western Duluth generates most of the compensatory aid that is spent on eastern schools. I would put a quick stop to that which will cause eastern schools to suffer.
My metaphor may have sounded unpleasant but it was meant to to wake people up. It was accurate and described the loss of western students to nearby school districts. Here’s Another metaphor. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. If our western schools fail so too will our eastern schools.
Ms. Carlson seemed satisfied with my reply:
“Harry Welty ok, thank you! Now I understand what you were saying.”
The anonymous collaborative promoting western Duluth, however, has taken the Donald Trump approach to my words and are only posting their original discredited post to promote their Facebook Page and to help other candidates. I know I wouldn’t want to win because of such underhanded actions.
